Recognizing World Food Day Today

DuPont News, October 16, 2012

DuPont is setting sizeable goals to help end world hunger and ensure food security that are achievable by the end of 2020.

The official World Food Day theme, announced each spring by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), gives focus to World Food Day observances and raises awareness and understanding of approaches to ending hunger.

“Agricultural cooperatives – key to feeding the world” is the formal wording of the 2012 theme. It has been chosen to highlight the role of cooperatives in improving food security and contributing to the eradication of hunger.

At DuPont, we believe food security exists when all people at all times have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient and nutritious food that meets their dietary need and food preferences for a healthy and active life.

The consequences of hunger and malnutrition are so devastating, so multi-faceted, that no one country, let alone one company, has all the answers. That is why we are committed to working with others – through collaborations with NGOs, governments, academia and others in the industry – and by working locally with farmers from Kenya to Mexico to the Ukraine to address their unique challenges.

DuPont is setting sizeable goals to help end world hunger and ensure food security that are achievable by the end of 2020.

Innovating to feed the world. We will commit $10 billion to R&D and 4,000 new products to be introduced by the end of 2020. The work will center on producing more food; enhancing nutrition and food and agriculture sustainability; boosting food availability and shelf life; and reducing waste.

Engaging and educating youth. By the end of 2020, we will facilitate 2 million engagements with young people around the world to transmit that knowledge.

Improving rural communities. We will work to improve the livelihoods of at least 3 million farmers and their rural communities through target collaborations and investments that strengthen agricultural systems and make food more available, nutritious and culturally appropriate. This is in addition to the work already being done to enhance the lives of hundreds of millions of famers through DuPont’s normal business practices.

Through these goals, DuPont will be accountable for providing innovative, science-based solutions to one of the world’s most critical challenges.